By adding Cousins, Warriors winners again
Defending champs appear invincible with latest move
For nearly 24 hours, the NBA world did not revolve around the Warriors. It was a stunning, strange time.
It took the marriage of the league’s celebrated glamour franchise and preeminent generational talent, but for most a day, the Warriors did not own the league’s attention, with LeBron James’ jump to the Lakers stealing the spotlight.
In the end, however, the Warriors win. One way or another, they always win. By Monday night, they won again, landing All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins for the cut-rate price of $5.3 million for one season.
With that, the champions of three of the past four seasons, with no real free-agency money to spend, made a move so remarkable it never made it to the conjecture stage before the league was shocked again.
JaVale McGee? Kevon Looney? Zaza Pachulia?
Not anymore. The Warriors’ one relative weakness, the one position in their starting lineup in which the champs somehow muddled through without an All-Star, now has a center who not only was an All-Star last season but has the variety of offensive talents to fit seamlessly with the Warriors’ way.
The Rockets had the Warriors on the brink by playing an aggressive switching defense, unconcerned with mismatches against the Warriors’ centers and able to match up with the small lineups.
The Warriors just announced, “Switch this!”
When they can say that during a game is uncertain. Cousins is coming back from surgery to repair an Achilles tear suffered in the final minute against the Rockets on Jan. 26. He averaged 25.2 points per game last season, making 47 percent of his shots and learning to work well with Anthony Davis and the Pelicans’ shooters as he will have to with the Warriors.
No need to rush back
With Golden State, he can take his time with his rehab and especially with his playing time when he does return, feeling no pressure to hurry to carry a team in the loaded Western Conference. He will have to adjust to the Warriors’ style, playing without holding the ball as he typically has. He has the skills as a passer to make it work. He needs to be 100 percent and in sync by the postseason to give the Warriors an answer for the only thing that gave them any trouble in the playoffs last season.
For the Rockets, there is no counter move. They seem stuck in the restricted free-agent dance with center Clint Capela. Capela’s sad face emoji on Twitter on Sunday, the day he and his representatives met with Rockets officials, was a good sign that no deal is imminent. Signing restricted free agents can often drag out, as the Rockets saw with a previous client of Capela’s agency, Donatas Motiejunas. There is a buyers’ market for centers this summer, as the Cousins bargain signing showed, with the teams with cap room either rebuilding or not in need.
There is no reason in the first days of July to expect things to get contentious as they did with Motiejunas, but signing Capela is at the top of the Rockets’ to-do list and that is just to keep the bulk of last season’s roster. With Trevor Ariza moving on to Phoenix, the Rockets will need Luc Mbah a Moute back more than ever, but bargain deals don’t come quickly. Mbah a Moute did not sign until July 19 last season.
The Rockets also now make their calls with the buzz around the league about the Warriors and Lakers. If they were hoping to sell free agents on the idea that joining them would be a way to play for a championship, those chances don’t look as promising as they did when free-agent season began late Saturday night. Even if they are, the talk is not what it was when the Rockets were a half away from the NBA Finals where they would have been heavy favorites for the championship.
The Warriors have won three of the past four championships, collecting the greatest regular season and the best postseason in league history along the way. To that, they have added one of the league’s best players to their weakest position.
Small price to add a title
Keeping Cousins beyond this season, when Klay Thompson also will be a free agent, will be difficult. The Warriors will not have Bird rights to him and if things go well, he is unlikely to offer such a cut-rate price again.
The Warriors, however, expect to pick up another championship by then. Once Cousins takes the floor, likely in December or January, they will have five of last season’s AllStars together. No team has had five All-Stars since the 1975-76 Celtics when they brought back Dave Cowens, Jo Jo White, John Havlicek and Paul Silas after picking up Charlie Scott from the Suns in the offseason.
The Celtics won the championship that season in six games. No one expects the Warriors to do the same. It would be a shock if it takes them that long.